Farm Laws Repealed: Is there any politics behind it?

–Kakali Das

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi announced that the Central government will repeal the three contentious farm laws as it failed to convince “a section of farmers” about the “benefits” of the legislation. PM Modi said that a committee will be constituted to take decisions on making Minimum Support Prices (MSP) more effective and transparent. The farmers have been protesting against the law in Delhi border since November last year. 

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Let’s discuss about the politics behind this decision – there are people across the mainstream media calling this decision “a gift from the Prime Minister to the farmers.” In my opinion, it’s hardly ‘a gift’ because farmers have protested for over a year now; they’ve been lathi charged, hit with water cannons, called as ‘Khalistanis’ and ‘terrorists’, their intelligence, patriotism have repeatedly been questioned, and yet they simply stood their ground. Did the BJP discover that with the farm laws in play, their position in the U.P elections was simply untenable? Is that what it has come to? And if that is the case, will the withdrawal of these laws make a massive difference to the BJP’s chances in Uttar Pradesh election?

This decision to repeal the three farm laws is likely a political decision, or an electoral decision more than anything else. “The government have well repealed it last year before the winter session, and brought the repeal bill, but they chose to wait as the farmers went through a series of travails. Over 600 farmers have died in various circumstances. The death toll is higher than what was experienced during the Kargil conflict. So, why did the government sit over it when they could have speeded the process of withdrawal up? Obviously, because of the Uttar Pradesh elections, and Punjab elections to a secondary extent. While the BJP is hugely invested in Uttar Pradesh, it clearly can’t afford to let go off the government there. And in Punjab their interest is to muddle the situation,” Radhika Ramaseshan, Senior Journalist said. 

Why is the government unwilling to give a legal guarantee for MSP? The farmers have been reiterating that they are being thrown to the vagaries of the open market, and especially the small and marginal farmers who formed the backbone of the BJP support in the past two to three elections. The farmers say that the quantum of their produce is small and hence it’s not worth a while going to an open market which is far way in a town or city. They can’t afford to buy a tractor or even a tempo to cut their produce to the market. So, it is incumbent on the government to open state-owned Mundis close to the villages or ideally in every village and legislate an MSP. 

Moreover, there is a problem of acute fertilizer shortage in India; monsoon season is about to end in November. So, there is an agrarian distress and there is no getting away with it. There has also been some writing about the fact there was water promised to Eastern UP that hasn’t been facilitated yet. And this is what is causing an agrarian distress as well. There are broken promises on that end that people are visibly distressed about, that has perhaps aggravated the pain of the farmers. 

What has shocked me is the fact that the anchors on the mainstream media are going gaga over this decision made by the Prime Minister, and praising him for being so ‘sensitive’ and ‘considerate’ to the farmers’ issues. If at all the PM has been sensitive, he could have repealed the laws last year itself. Why did he have to wait for these 600 farmers to die amidst the agitation? Besides, the announcement for the withdrawal of the three farm laws was done on the day of Gurpurb – which was clearly aimed at keeping the Sikhs in good humour, because ultimately, the fact of the matter is that the agitation was started by the Sikh farmers, and it is their strength with which they could sustain the agitation for a year. 

And, for the uninformed, our ‘sensitive’ Prime Minister had gone to the extent of calling these farmers – Khalistanis, terrorists, separatists, and a new word “Andolan-jivi” that he had coined. So, if they were terrorists or Khalistanis, then why did he have to concede their demand in the end? 

“Basically it’s politics of vote, and Modi is too smart at that,” Sharad Pradhan, Senior Journalist said. 

If we look at the twitter now, we find a lot of traditional supporters of government sounding very confused. Where on the one hand, the government has dug in its heels for a year and attempted to convince us that these laws are good for the farmers, that they are being brought in for the benefit of the farmers, and that the farmers who have been protesting either has anti-national intentions or has misunderstood the laws, and on the other hand, today, we have the other members of the Parliament such as, the Home Minister, the Defence Minister who have tweeted that the PM has withdrawn these laws out of his ‘kindness’ and ‘understanding’ of the farmers’ needs. 

Now, how is BJP going to spin this? Will this decision paint a picture to the supporters of Narendra Modi that he is not as strong as they thought he was, and that he’s bowed down to the farmers’ demands? How will this play out to the political image of the BJP and the PM? 

“It’s very interesting here. One the one hand, there are the hard core supporters of the party who are enraged, because these reforms were seen as the equivalent of Narasimha Rao’s reforms in the 90s, and Narasimha Rao was supposed to have rebirth the economy. So, these traditional supporters thought of it in the same manner that Modi through these laws was pulling the Indian farming sector out of the stagnancy that it badly needed. Hence, these hard-core supporters are very upset,” Radhika Ramaseshan further said. 

Moreover, in the villages of the western UP in particular, the BJP leaders were not even allowed to enter the village, and so their campaigns were at stake. There have, in fact, been cases where the leaders have been physically prevented from entering the villages, and that is what the farmers had made it loud and clear at the very beginning, that they would teach BJP the lesson during the elections. And this is probably the another major factor which led Modi to repeal the three laws. And it’s rare for anybody who has a despotic approach to concede and to apologise. So, I think, this decision has been made with an eye on the vote, and, now, they are adopting this soft approach to impress upon the farmers of being their well-wishers. 

During the day of every election, all these anchors on mainstream media refer to the election as ‘the dance of democracy.’ But, they might be missing the fact that this what the farmers have compelled the government to do is ‘the dance of democracy.’ At the end of the day, peaceful, non-violent protest is the very fabric of our country. I think this is why elections take place- its accountability for the government seems to have brought about a change that this government didn’t really want to. Even though, the government earlier had shown no inclination towards mitigating the grievances of the farmers, but at some point the people of this country had its way.